Mini Me

When I was younger my parents would say to me (as I think all parents must now and again), "I hope someday you have a child who is just like you!" My clever response was always, "me too! Then at last someone will understand me!" For better or worse, it looks like I'm going to get that opportunity. Last week we had a ultrasound and determined that our baby is going to be a girl! We learned a few other things about her as well....

Despite having been actively kicking away earlier in the morning, baby was sound asleep when we got to the ultrasound room. And she did not want to move. They always want me to come to the ultrasound with an uncomfortably full bladder (great for all the poking and prodding they then do). But after a few minutes of trying to get a good angle on the baby, I was ordered to empty my bladder so it might turn over. I did my part; baby didn't move. They tilted the examination table to raise my feet, then they tilted it the other way to raise my head. I lay on my back, then my side. The technician even put a large sponge under my hips for a while. No luck. The baby was not in a useful position and was not moving. For over an hour she tried to get a good look at the heart, brain, spinal cord, etc. It was more than a little challenging. At one point the technician was trying to get a picture of the baby's face, but her little arms were both right in front of her face. Then she tried to determine the gender, but baby's legs were crossed at the kneecaps. Great.

Finally, I was instructed to walk around for a few minutes and if the baby didn't cooperate, I would just have to come back. I did some walking, some gentle-ish bouncing and some rather dynamic movements. James gave the baby a pep talk. We tried again and were able to see well enough to be able to leave. And, of course, we got enough of a look to be pretty sure it's a girl. We did not, however, get anything approaching a good picture (as good as ultrasound pictures get). Oh well.

Now we know that this baby is like her mother. She's not what you would expect (in our case, a boy), she's stubborn, she does not like to be disturbed in her repose, and she doesn't want her picture taken. In fact, if everyone is going to focus on her, she'd much rather just go to sleep.

So now I'm trying to in still in her my love of music, because I'm told she can hear it. I'll probably start her on books soon too, though they're unlikely to be age appropriate at this point since I'm skeptical that she can understand them from the womb. If her mature food tastes mirror my pregnancy preferences, she will love Asian food (unlike me when I'm not pregnant), eat fresh fruit as much as possible, and avoid ice cream. Regardless of whether she turns out to be a Melanie-clone, and whether or not we truly do understand each other perfectly, I'm very excited for her arrival.